September 17, 2018

Tough Loss to St. Joseph’s Drops Women’s Soccer to 1-5

Despite a good defensive effort by the Red, Saint Joseph’s prevailed, 1-0, against Cornell in Philadelphia on Sunday, bringing Cornell’s current record to 1-5. Junior goalkeeper Chrissy Mayer made six saves, but Aleksa Peev’s 66th-minute goal sealed the game for St. Joseph’s.

After a season-opening win against St. Bonaventure, the women’s soccer team finds itself on a five-game losing streak.

“The team struggled with establishing possession and moving the ball out of our defensive third, especially in the second half, so that is something we will look to improve upon heading into Ivies,” Mayer said.

St. Joseph’s dominated control of the game, amassing 19 shots on goal to Cornell’s two. Furthermore, the Hawks had eight corner kick attempts, and the Red had zero.

Junior midfielder Juliana Comer had a chance early in the game, but Cornell had very few offensive opportunities.

“We knew from our scouting reports that St. Joe’s would look to drive a lot of balls into the box to their tall forwards and midfielders,” Mayer said. “We worked in training the week before on reading those balls and dominating the box in the air, which proved important in the game.”

Despite being edged out by the St. Joseph’s offense, Mayer and Comer both said the Red can build on its impressive defensive effort.

“We did a pretty good job overall defending,” Comer said. “We almost always tracked our marks and were able to intercept passes due to being in the right positions defensively.”

Despite Cornell’s competitive effort, St. Joseph’s was significantly in control of the ball throughout the match. The Hawks had three shots in the span of three minutes in the middle of the first half.

Furthermore, in the three minutes before the goal they scored in the 66th minute, the Hawks made four attempts, an example of the game’s trend of Cornell being mostly on the defensive, with little chance to make attacks of its own.

“We were lacking on the offensive side yesterday due to struggling a little bit when connecting passes from the backs to the mids and then to the forwards,” Comer said.

Looking ahead to conference play, the Red thinks it can bounce back and compete in the Ivy League.

“We’re looking to rebound from this weekend with a win in our final game before conference play and carry momentum into our Ivy opener against Columbia,” Mayer said.

The Red hosts Albany at 7 p.m. Tuesday before traveling to Columbia for its first Ivy contest on Saturday.

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“I think we didn’t get off to a good start as we failed to create clear shooting opportunities in the first part of the half,” Hornibrook said. “The young players on the team worked well together to pose an offensive threat in the second half. However, the whole team needs to do better to put pressure on the opponent and create goal scoring opportunities.”